Please note: If you have a promotional code you'll be prompted to enter it prior to confirming your order.

Customer Sign In

Returning Customer

If you have an account, please sign in.

New Customers

If you subscribe to any of our print newsletters and have never activated your online account, please activate your account below for online access. By activating your account, you will create a login and password. You only need to activate your account once.

In Case You Missed It:

In Brief: Study suggests best way to treat a painkiller addiction

In Brief

Study suggests best way to treat a painkiller addiction

Published: February, 2012

Nearly two million Americans are addicted to painkillers such as
oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and meperidine
(Demerol). Painkiller addiction has soared since the early 1990s
— to the point where it now dwarfs cocaine and heroin addiction.
Now a large randomized controlled trial suggests that painkiller
addiction may be similar to heroin addiction in one important way
— that it requires ongoing treatment with a substitute drug to
quell cravings.

Researchers at McLean Hospital led the national study, which
involved 653 people addicted to painkillers. Half of the
participants were randomly assigned to standard medical
management (occasional clinician visits and referrals to
self-help groups) while the other half received more intensive
outpatient drug counseling. In addition, all participants
received Suboxone, a pill that combines buprenorphine with
naloxone. Buprenorphine relieves withdrawal symptoms while
delivering less of a "high." But some people abuse buprenorphine
— which is why the narcotic-blocker naloxone was added. When the
patient takes Suboxone under the tongue as directed, very little
naloxone is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream. But if
the patient crushes the pill for injection, intending to abuse
the drug, naloxone floods the bloodstream, neutralizing the
slight "high" from buprenorphine while causing unpleasant side
effects.

Harvard Health Bestsellers

Daily Health Tip

Keep learning

A lifelong habit of learning and engaging in mentally challenging activities seems to keep the brain in shape. Intellectual enrichment and learning stimulate the brain to make more connections, increasing the density of nerve-to-nerve connections. That means the "educated brain" may possess a deeper well of connections and be able to withstand more damage to the brain from a small stroke without causing loss of memory or thinking skills.